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Welcome to COWS
COWS is a national policy center and field laboratory for high-road economic development — a competitive market economy of shared prosperity, environmental sustainability, and capable democratic government.
COWS' work is collaborative, experimental, and evidence-driven. Working with business, government, labor, and communities, we try out new ideas, test their effectiveness, and disseminate those with promise. We believe that the best way to predict the future is to start making it, particularly in our states and metro regions.
Some areas of COWS' program focus are:
- Economic and workforce development
- Sectoral strategies and career pathways
- Clean energy and energy efficiency
- Labor markets and job improvement
- Strategies for improving low-wage work
COWS is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, famous for the “Wisconsin Idea” that the University should help informed democratic experiment. Since its founding 18 years ago, COWS has often been called “the Wisconsin Idea in action.”
COWS is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, educational and charitable organization. Its budget comes from foundation and individual gifts and grants and technical assistance contracts.
Keeping Up with COWS
Our e-newsletter, COWS Notes, is an easy way to keep informed about what's going on at COWS.
You can also follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.
The State of Working Wisconsin
The State of Working Wisconsin tells a compelling story about the status of jobs and workers in Wisconsin. Visit The State of Working Wisconsin web page for more information. Or, follow the links below to download the 2008 report and executive summary, or the more recent 2009 Update.
- The State of Working Wisconsin - Update 2009
- The State of Working Wisconsin 2008 - Full Report
- The State of Working Wisconsin 2008 - Executive Summary
Jobs at COWS
To learn about current employment opportunities, click here.
new at COWSBuilding Bridges in Wisconsin: Connecting Working Adults with College Credentials and Career Advancement takes a look at various "bridge" initiatives being pioneered at technical colleges across the state. - read more - Wisconsin Women, Wages and the Recession is the 2010 gender wage gap report from COWS and the Wisconsin Women's Council. - read more - Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy assesses the state of “green” training, offers a normative argument for doing better, and provides specific policy suggestions for federal, state and system stakeholders. - read more - Wisconsin Job Watch is a monthly publication that provides a snapshot of the effects of the recession on Wisconsin jobs. - read more - Mapping Green Career Pathways: Job Training Infrastructure and Opportunities in Wisconsin outlines key components of the state's workforce development systems that could be aligned and expanded to support an emerging clean energy sector. - read more - Wisconsin's Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs projects more than 426,000 "middle-skill" job openings for the state by 2016. - read more - featured newsJune jobs report reveals recession's still-tight hold on state8/18/2010- Following some small but steady gains on the jobs front earlier this year, Wisconsin went the other way in June, losing another 8,200 jobs, according to the Center on Wisconsin Strategy's monthly r... COWS report looks closely at the latest jobless data7/28/2010- (STATEWIDE) Wisconsin's unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level since February of 2009. But, the number of jobs lost last month was actually up.
Here and Now: Frederica Freyberg interviews Laura Dresser7/2/2010- Click here to watch the video.
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